I invite you to turn to 1 John chapter 4, read verses 7 through 21. You can find that on page 1401. Bibles in the seats. It won't be very hard to find the theme of this passage. The word love is repeated, should have counted, I don't know, more than a dozen times. So listen as I read God's word, 1 John 4, beginning in verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us. that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time, If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. and we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, But perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he does not love his brother whom he has seen, How can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also. When I was growing up, every year my uncle in Florida would send us a Christmas gift, a box of fruit, Now, I'm gonna date myself a little bit here, because when I say a box of fruit, I think I saw Max and Jason's eyebrows go up and say, a box of fruit? What's so important about a box of fruit? You can go down to Walmart anytime and get any kind of fruit that you can imagine. In fact, you could go and find fruit from halfway around the world, fruit that we saw in China. but now you can get it in Walmart. What's so special about a box of fruit? Well, that's kind of the point. When I was growing up, you didn't get all kinds of fruits all through the year. You would get the fruit that was in season during that period of the year. And in that holiday period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is the time when the Florida citrus fruit was coming in. So he would send us a big box of Florida citrus fruit, oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, kumquats, dripping with juice and flavor. And boy, did we look forward to that gift every year. I introduced today's passage this way because of our theme of the year, Keep in Step with the Spirit. And such a theme would not be complete unless we considered this rich passage about the fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5 says this. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Today and over the next several weeks, I'll call you to keep in step with the Spirit by desiring and practicing these fruit of the Spirit. And I want you to know just the pattern that I'll set today is that while I'm preaching thematically, I'm going to choose a specific passage to be the primary guide to consider that fruit of the Spirit. And so today I read 1 John 4, and in it, this comes through. God is love. Therefore, love one another. Before we get to that statement, God is love, John starts this way, that love is from God. You follow along the outline on the back. It's going to be very easy to fill in the blanks, and you may guess, even by the first one, how this is going to go. But I won't spoil it for you. You can be held in anticipation about what will fill in all of those blanks. Love is from God, and he starts by considering just the source of love. Love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, he says in verse seven. So if you really want to know what love is, you're going to turn and look at God, because he is the source of love. As you can tell here, you and I have been born again by the work of God the Father. You have been born again so that out of that union you have with Jesus Christ comes the source of the love that we have for him and for each other. It's such a strong relationship that John says that if you don't love, that you are not from God. There's an evidence to the negative side of things, that there's some disconnect that is happening. Well, this fits very well with the concept of the fruit of the spirit, doesn't it? Fruit comes from somewhere. It doesn't just appear on the shelves at Walmart by magic. Sometimes it seems that way, doesn't it? If you can go in the middle of the summer and get a grapefruit, it does seem like some kind of magic, doesn't it? But that's not where oranges and grapefruit come from. Oranges come from orange trees. And an apple tree produces apples. Union with God in Christ produces fruit. Love comes from being united to God. This is just the way that fruit works. And the negative example is a good illustration of this. If a branch is disconnected from the tree, if a branch is disconnected from the vine, It will bear no fruit. And you can reason backwards as well. The lack of fruit shows the disconnect. Love comes from God. And it's a truth that invites you to savor what we have by our union with Christ. It invites you to taste it. to enjoy the flavor of it and enjoy the juiciness of that fruit. In fact, let me invite you the next time you bite into a piece of fruit to ask this question. Where did this fruit come from? And think very deliberately, well, it came from the tree that bore it. And then after answering that question, ask the next question. Where does Christian love come from? Answer, it comes from God. May seem self-evident, but John repeats this for good reason. Because there is this pressing tendency and temptation among the people of God to break fellowship with each other, to not show love to each other. And he speaks of this fruit of the Spirit, the love that comes from God as an evidence of the work of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in you. It's remarkable that God would show our union with him in this way, that the love that we share with each other is a fruit that comes from God. But it's more remarkable than maybe you've ever imagined because of what John goes on to say next. Not only does love come from God, but God is love. God is love. There are a handful of places in the Bible where you have this simple, profound statement about who God is, where there is an equation of God and something else. So in his life, Jesus said, God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. God is spirit. Earlier in this letter, John says, God is light. And here John says, God is love. What he's doing is communicating something about the essential nature of who God is. God is love. Sometimes I've described this in other messages. We might say something like this today. He is OSU. He bleeds orange. Someone who is so identified with the school that if you cut him, he bleeds orange. But in this case, John is equating God and love. We could say that all that he is and all that he does spring from this essential nature of his love. So I urge you to take time in the coming weeks as you read your Bible to think of it in light of this essential character of God's love. And then what he has done for you to draw you into that love that is shared in the Trinity. Just by example, you could start at the very beginning. When God created the world, he placed mankind at the center of all he made. This is an act of love. In fact, when we sang Psalm 136, it began to enumerate some of these things that show that steadfast love of God. And I hope you remember it, that by His power, God created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, for His love endures forever. He set great lights in the sky, the sun by day, the moon by night, for his love endures forever. And over and over again, that created order of God is a demonstration of his love. Not only that, but God expresses his love in his justice, even the punishment of sin. Go on and read Psalm 136 and you'll see in the history of Israel how God brought them out of the land of Egypt, how he punished those enemies that stood against his people. For his love endures forever. It even names them, Sion and Og. For his love endures forever. God's justice is an expression of his love. And supremely, his redemption is an expression of his love. God is love. And the redemption is especially highlighted by John, and especially highlighted in a way that points out that all of who God is is involved in the love of redemption. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit love his people. So verses 7 through 8 point to God the Father. 9 and 10 will go on to demonstrate how God is loving Jesus Christ. And 12 through 13, John refers to the Holy Spirit as the abiding nature of God in us, an expression of love. But just pause and think about the Father is loved. We can make the application all through this that John is making. Since God the Father is loved, beloved, let us love one another. So here, John calls attention to the fact that you've been born again to a living hope. and brought into the knowledge of God. As you think about just the work of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this regenerating work of God is an expression of his love. And all you need to do is back up and consider where you were without God to recognize how this is supremely an expression of love. What were you without Jesus? You were dead in your trespasses and sin. You were living in darkness. You were under the domain and under the dominion of the prince of the power of the air, you loved darkness, hated God. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his love with which he has loved us, has brought us to life, delivered us from the domain of darkness. Because of that love of God, you will be more and more like God, who is love. Or to put it in the negative once more as verse 8 does, he who does not love, does not know God, for God is love. God the Son is love. We could say that he is love incarnate, can't we? God is, Jesus is love incarnate. This is part of that aspect of John's calling attention to how the triune God, who is love, has expressed love to us. And so he says, in this, the love of God was manifested toward us. that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. What's he talking about there? He's talking about the incarnation, isn't he? He's talking about how Jesus, the son of God, became man. Throughout the Christmas season, you'll be hearing a lot about the incarnation. And I want you to think about it from this message as an expression of God's love. That God, the Son, became man to redeem us from our sins. So we, says John, we live through him. We live through him because of that love that he has shown us. And we love him and we love others because he has loved us. John has unveiled the source of the love as coming from God, who is love. Now he indicates the object of that love, a love that is expressed from Father, to son, and from father and son to us. Think about that. The love that the father has for the son is the very same love that he expresses to you. It's not something second best. It's not a... picking up the windfall fruits from the trees that are bruised and wormy and saying, here, you can have this. No, he is giving you that very love that is shared between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This comes because of Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate. So throughout this Christmas season, I encourage you to think of the fruit of the Spirit that is love. Think of coming of Jesus Christ as an expression of that love. Think of what Jesus has done for you. I'll say again, the very fact is that you did not love God before Jesus acted on your behalf. The fact is that you have hated him. Just think of how we normally have relationships. At least from my perspective, I am inclined to show love to those who show love to me. And if I don't receive love, I'm not going to initiate it to anyone else unless it is given to me in return. But that's not divine love. That's not the love of Jesus Christ. God loved us even when we were his enemies. Even when we hated him, God loved us. And as John says, he made Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. That's a big word that we need to pause and define. This is the payment that satisfies God's justice. Your echoes of this later in the passage, where it says that the love of God does not have any fear because fear has to do with judgment and terror. Well, there is no terror in God's sight because the payment that satisfies judgment has been paid by Jesus Christ. His love endures forever, we say. Once again, in Psalm 136. In fact, it runs throughout all of scripture. Think of John 3.16, for God so loved the world, he loved the world in this way, that he gave his only begotten son. Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Or think of Romans 5, 8 or Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Scripture consistently teaches us that out of love, God sent Jesus to die for sinners. He freely offers that gift of salvation to you. He freely offers to wash you from your sins. He invites you to enter in to that divine love that is shared in the Trinity. Don't you long for that perfect love? I urge you. I more than urge you, I call you to say you may have that gift through repentance and faith in Jesus as your Savior. That's the Son, what about the Spirit? Well, John mentions the Spirit too. Verses 12 through 14, God the Spirit is love, and therefore we love one another because of the Holy Spirit. Let me read those verses again just so you catch the significance of the Spirit. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. A commentator calls this brief passage breathtaking in its scope. John tells the truth. No one can see God at any time. No one. All throughout the Bible, God makes this point that God is holy and that sinners cannot come into his presence. No man, woman, or child can see God. That leaves hanging that million dollar question, so if God is holy and we are not, we cannot see God, we cannot come into his presence, where does that leave us? Eternally separated from the holy God? Well, yes, unless God acts. But what John says is that the Holy Spirit abides in us. And it abides in us in a way that demonstrates our connection, our union with God through the love that we have for him and the love that we have for one another. You see why Paul would say that this is one way to keep in step with the Spirit, is to enjoy and practice this divine gift of love. When John says no one can see God, he then goes on to say, that we may see him because of the son who is love incarnate and because of the spirit who abides in you. And while we do not see the spirit literally with our outward eyes, we see his presence by the fruit that is born in our lives. What a joy it is to know that God loves you right now and continually through the indwelling spirit. We can gather this all together in a very simple way. Love is from God, and God is love. The Father is love, the Son is love, the Holy Spirit is love. And now you see the outline, and you can maybe fill in all of those blanks. But that's not all, because that's not the purpose of John writing these things. I have majored on this because of the really the rich and powerful doctrine that it is, but the force of the passage is this. Comes through in verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Say that again. Beloved, if God so loved us, We also ought to love one another. There's the force of this passage, the purpose of why John elaborates and helps you to see the enormity of what God has done for you. That he has given you his love, he has given you his life, he has given you his spirit. because of his great love. Now, John doesn't say what this looks like. To develop that, I'd refer you to Jesus's words himself, a summary of the law of love, a summary of all of the commandments of God. What is the summary of the law? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. To read more, read this afternoon 1 Corinthians 13, and Romans 13, and Ephesians 5, just to name a few passages that will help you develop a taste for the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, how it is exercised. But what John says about this is profound. Verse 12, when God's love is planted in your hearts, when God himself dwells in you, his love is perfected. And that word could lead you to a wrong conclusion. It could lead you to think, well, God's love is imperfect or it's somehow defective. And that's not what the word has in mind. In fact, The word itself comes from a word that has in mind, you may have heard this before, the telos of a matter has in mind the end purpose of life. That's the word that is used here, and so it has in mind not correcting something that is imperfect, but fulfilling the purpose of God for this love. So you could say it this way. When you love one another, you complete or you fulfill the purpose of God's love in you. You fulfill the purpose of that love. Our Christian experiences is often so oriented to our individual experience of God's love that we can view it almost selfishly. God's love is on me and so the gift of eternal life is mine and that's true. That's a very important application of this truth, but it's not enough. God has loved you for more purpose than just to save you from your sins. He has loved you so that His love would be demonstrated and reflected to the watching world. It's reflected by the way that you love one another. There is a desperate longing for love in our world and culture today, isn't there? We want to be accepted, we want to have a place, we want to have a purpose. And as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, you will search for that high and low, but never find it. unless you find it in God's love. It is the purpose of God's love to save you from your sins, but it is also his purpose that you would be like him and that the fruit of the spirit of love would be demonstrated in your interaction with brothers and sisters in Christ. And it's a love that also is a light to the watching world. So I will close today by urging you to see again that God is love. Think and meditate on how that is demonstrated in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And don't just meditate on these great, wonderful truths of who God is and what he's done. But meditate on them in a way that impels you, that pushes you to show love to your brothers and sisters in Christ. This comes from your own union with Christ. And so one way to nurture this fruit of the spirit, one way to keep in step is to meditate on who God is and what he's done for you. But don't stop there. Learn to practice it in your life, your husband, with your wife, your children, your co-workers. For those that are sitting next to you right now, for those that you work with in your workplace, pray that you will live with one another, the same love that God has shown you by the power of the indwelling spirit. Let's pray for this right now. Oh Lord God, We do long for the love that you show to us in Jesus Christ. Our lives are empty without it and we cast about looking for meaning and purpose. Lord God, may we find it in our union with you and seen especially in this beautiful, rich fruit of love. Lord God, as we have experienced that ourselves, we pray that you would teach us more and more how to express that sacrificial love to one another in Christ. In his name we pray, amen. I invite you to turn to Psalm 133 as our closing psalm. I've sung this recently and I'll just call your attention to the blessing of the peace and unity that is born between brothers and sisters. It's something that we can thank God for, but we can also pray for. It is the fruit of the spirit of love put into practice. So let's stand and sing Psalm 133a.